WND EXCLUSIVE

Tax-supported state school campaigns for Obama

Offers credit if students volunteered for re-election effort

A new report from CampusReform.org reveals that a taxpayer-funded college in Colorado jumped into the effort to re-elect Barack Obama to the White House, but then backed off quickly when questioned about the political effort.

The move, the website reported, may have violated the Colorado Fair Campaigns Practices Act, Section 1-45-117, which “bans the use of public resources for ‘campaigns involving the nomination, retention, or election of any person to any public office.'”

The report said Adams State posted the opportunity late last week on its website stating: “The Obama Campaign Internship (GOVT 279 Presidential Election Internship) will be a 12 week long organizing internship for the Obama Campaign.”

However, no similar offer was made for students to participate on the campaign of Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee, the report by Oliver Darcy said.

He reported Julie Waecter, assistant to the president for communications at Adams State, told Campus Reform that while the public university did offer the credit no public resources were deployed toward that end.

“No state funds are being used to pay for students working on the campaign,” she said.

Then she added that the school had changed its position on the credit offer, and was canceling the plan, Darcy reported.

Under the proposal, students would have been required to volunteer for Obama at least 15 hours each week after taking an all-day training session, Campus Reform reported.

Adams State trumpeted the program “offers high-level campaign organizer training and in-depth involvement in one of the most expensive presidential races in recent history,” the report said.

The school also had a link to the Obama campaign.

However, Darcy reported, “A few hours after Campus Reform inquired about the course offering, the post advertising the opportunity was removed from the university’s website.”

Here’s the original posting:

And here are the results when a search for the proposal was made following the school’s decision to retract the credit offering: